Kos J, Werle B, Lah T, Brunner N
Jozef Stefan Institute, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Int J Biol Markers. 2000 Jan-Mar;15(1):84-9. doi: 10.1177/172460080001500116.
Cathepsins B, H and L have been shown to participate in processes of tumor growth, vascularization, invasion and metastasis. Their levels in tumor tissue extracts can provide useful clinical information to predict disease-free and overall survival in breast, lung, colorectal, brain and head and neck cancer patients. Recently we have found that both cysteine cathepsins and their endogenous protein inhibitors stefins and cystatin C can also predict prognosis when measured extracellularly. In melanoma and colorectal cancer patients high serum levels of cathepsins B and H correlated with shorter survival. Similarly, increased extracellular levels of stefins A and B and cystatin C correlated significantly with high risk of adverse outcome in cancer patients. However, the cathepsin B/cystatin C complex was found to be less abundant in sera of patients with malignant tumors than in those with benign diseases or in healthy controls, suggesting an imbalance between the enzyme and its inhibitor in cancer patients.
组织蛋白酶B、H和L已被证明参与肿瘤生长、血管生成、侵袭和转移过程。它们在肿瘤组织提取物中的水平可为预测乳腺癌、肺癌、结直肠癌、脑癌和头颈癌患者的无病生存期和总生存期提供有用的临床信息。最近我们发现，当在细胞外进行检测时，半胱氨酸组织蛋白酶及其内源性蛋白质抑制剂丝抑素和胱抑素C也可以预测预后。在黑色素瘤和结直肠癌患者中，血清中组织蛋白酶B和H的高水平与较短的生存期相关。同样，丝抑素A和B以及胱抑素C的细胞外水平升高与癌症患者不良结局的高风险显著相关。然而，发现恶性肿瘤患者血清中的组织蛋白酶B/胱抑素C复合物比良性疾病患者或健康对照者血清中的含量少，这表明癌症患者体内该酶与其抑制剂之间存在失衡。
